Chapter 4
The wheels of the transport chair hummed over the grated floor as Sterling wheeled me through the cavernous research station. The pain I’d been shielding myself against trickled into the back of my mind, and I ground the sharp edges of my teeth back and forth.
Unless he offered up his blood, Sterling Peoples had no chance of “fixing me up,” no matter how much I wished those capable hands that had carried my battered body could heal me. Blant, I was tired of keeping it together.
My nostrils flared. An intoxicating scent mixed with Sterling’s sweat—whisper berries. A lethal combination to my vanishing self-control.
I’d never drunk from anyone but a Boola…
What would an Earther taste like? What would this Earther taste like?
The tip of my fang pierced my lip, and I licked over the sting.
The mind-clearing prick reminded me of what D’iver had said.
“It’s simple. Your body will be drawn to the most nourishing source.
” It meant Sterling’s blood could sustain me.
Simple. I snorted, gripping my ribs at the sharp twinge.
This might be the most complicated mess I’d ever found myself in, all thanks to my brother and his shortcuts.
I’d bet a lifetime of family dinner dishes that D’iver hadn’t completed the pre-flight checklist, just like he’d forgotten about the containment system that I was rushing to deliver for no apparent reason, because this place was…
Blant, my head hurt! I cupped it in my hands, immediately dropping them when my ribs twinged.
I focused on the long stretch of hanging ductwork that covered the low ceiling.
Anything to distract my brain from the throbbing…
and my irresponsible brother. If I compartmentalized the pain much longer, I wouldn’t be able to form a coherent sentence.
And I was dangerously close to revealing my need for blood.
A hot bolt of desire churned in my stomach as I replayed the moment I’d removed the empty oxy tank mask from Sterling’s face.
Beneath his milky skin, short bristles ran over his square chin like a tinga fruit’s spikes.
The mask had been hiding the mean jaw of a warrior, clenched with determination.
A once-broken nose and sharp cheekbones softened into hair so luxurious looking that I wanted to thread my fingers through it. My heart thudded in my chest.
Sola’s hell, what were the odds of being trapped and entirely dependent on the most handsome male I’d ever seen?
The chair bumped over a hose lying across the floor, jarring my aching ribs.
I hugged my chest and stifled a moan. “Are we just about there?” Though hurting, I was thankful for the pain.
The last thing I needed to be thinking of was how pretty my purple tongue would look against his pale collarbone as I licked it.
“Shit. I’ll be more careful. My head’s in the clouds.”
It was a blessing I couldn’t see his face when he leaned forward and his silky strands brushed over my shoulders, sending shivers through my body that had nothing to do with pain. With a mind of its own, my filthy hand reached up to finger a length. “Pretty hair.”
“You must be really out of it.” He chuckled before his voice took on a more serious note. “Stupid fucking med kit better have some pain relievers.”
I flinched and let go of Sterling’s hair, going back to staring at the jagged gash in my thigh that was still oozing blood I couldn’t afford to lose.
I racked my muddy brain for something intelligent to say.
Something to cover up the nonsense. My vision faded in and out as I switched my focus to the enormous fans circling overhead, but they only made me dizzy.
“I meant to ask what happened to the air?”
“Sterling Peoples?” That female voice spoke over the speaker system again.
Sterling paused, and I turned to see him press a spot behind his ear. “Yes, C?”
“There are a few new issues to contend with. Biodome Tig requires your attention. There’s a blockage in the water recycler.”
Sterling leaned into my back and resumed pushing. “Give me an hour, C.”
The impact of my crash landing had finally caught up with me, turning my struggling mind to mush. I craved a warm, dark room and a sweet, life-giving vein so badly my hands trembled against my grungy pants.
“These are the remaining biomes to the left.”
What? When had he started giving me a tour? I forced myself upright. “Are there animals to hunt?” Had I zoned out during his answer about the air?
Something ripe and smelling of green replaced the rancid, rotting odor that had been clogging my nose since Sterling had welcomed me to his home.
Five foggy windows soared floor to ceiling along one corridor, reaching taller than the swooping fans.
They extended beyond the maze of black ducts like bright bubbles.
A smile split my lips. My fingers itched to bury themselves in the rich, earthy soil, but the deep throb in my head stole the moment.
“Nah, there are no animals.” He looked at me like I was crazy. “Wait here while I grab a pail of water.” He jogged to the door and held his palm to the reader, and the rich green scent grew stronger, wafting to me through the open door.
Yeah, not going anywhere, handsome Earther.
Moments later, he slid a full bucket onto the chair’s arm. “Let’s hope with C’s help we can get you back to normal.” With deliberate care, Sterling tipped the chair over a raised lip into a small pod, sloshing cool water over my shoulder. “Shit, sorry.”
“S’okay.” I swallowed hard as his potent scent reached me and tightened my grip on the chair. A fresh bead of perspiration dripped down my chin. My fangs extended, and I groaned, wanting more.
“Hang on. Relief is just around the corner.”
Not likely.
I tried to shake it, but my instincts homed in on his heartbeat and the rapid-fire pulse in his neck. The sounds roared like a torrent of water in my ears. He rustled around in a compartment under a thin mattress. Did he sleep in this little can? He couldn’t even stand upright in here.
The far side of the pod, a chair’s length away, housed his bed, which was built into an egg-shaped hollow.
Drinking containers overflowed with green sludge from a small, raised ledge near his mattress.
Crumpled gray overalls hung off a hook inside the doorless entry my chair was currently parked in, and another pair stuck out from beneath the table.
A viewscreen hung from the low roof in the hollow above his mattress.
The only orderly thing was a row of gleaming tools lined up along a curved shelf. Sterling Peoples was messy.
Why were we here? My leg tingled, the throbbing changing to numbness, and I worried the damage might be permanent if I didn’t treat it soon.
Saliva pooled in my mouth as Sterling moved toward me, clutching a small case. “That’s all you got?” I asked.
Sterling placed the med kit on my lap, and I tried to bite back my frustration at its woefully tiny size. The Earther was doing his best. How far had he carried me? I was just so damn tired.
“Yeah.” He scratched his tangled hair. “Shit, I’m not much of a medic.
Hey, C, any idea where we can find a better med kit and…
maybe a low occupancy level that might have a decent bed?
” His eyes jumped from the dirty dishes overflowing his table to the laundry piled in the corner, and his foot tapped an erratic beat on the grated floor.
“Damn it, I’m messing up.” Sterling raked his fingers through his long hair, swearing when they caught in the elastic.
“Why didn’t I ask C before I brought you all the way down here?
I keep forgetting it’s safe beyond this level. ”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, lingering on the left fang at the possibility of sharing a room. “Don’t worry about it, Sterling. I can manage.” How? I didn’t know, but easing his discomfort was paramount.
“Can you call me Silver—”
C interrupted. “Hello, Sterling Peoples. I am happy to help.” Her cheerful voice lessened the tension until it was just about manageable.
Silver. I liked the sound of his name. It felt familiar. But even more than the warmth that built under my skin as I rolled the sound of the letters over my tongue, I liked that he’d trusted me with his less formal name.
Determined to make things easier for him, I twisted to reach the bucket and groaned at the searing agony that ripped through my rib cage.
He placed the bucket in my lap, and I nodded in gratitude.
“D’alton of Clan Lasting, level ten is equipped to accommodate overflow from the level fifteen med bay.
It’s unfortunate, but the coolers have lost their power source and the blood bank will have spoiled.
They do have a health meter and revive gel and various remedies to accommodate the many species employed on Thermal Station C. You should recover quite well there.”
Blant! Now what? I poked at my lifeless leg. Is this the beginning of blood fever?
Silver frowned. “Shit, do you need a blood transfusion?” His gaze mapped my leg. “It’s mostly stopped bleeding. Here, take this.” He opened up a packet and shook a tablet into my palm. “It should help take the edge off.”
Revive gel would get me by for now, and with a fresh mantu kill, the bloodlust might be held at bay. For a while.
C carried on, and I got the impression that without the AI, Silver would not have made it this far. “The cooling unit is under repair on level nine. All occupants were rehoused while repairs took place—”
“C, get to the point.” Silver knocked over a drinking container, and I smiled at his attempt to tidy.
C’s laugh sounded like it came from inside a tin can. “There will be empty rooms on level nine, but they may be a little on the toasty side.”
I rinsed my face, putting all my strength into holding my arms steady. “I must look like I’ve been rolled in Lizzard dung and left out to rot.” My hair would never get clean with a sponge and bucket. “Sola, what I wouldn’t do for a cold shower and a bloody mantu steak.”
Silver shook his head, tangled waves falling over his shoulders. “You look good to me.” His voice came out an octave lower than normal, and he coughed to clear his throat. “Shower then? There’s not really enough room in here for the both of us.”
I passed him the bucket after squeezing a clean sponge full of water over the gash in my thigh.
“I’m all yours.” Hellfire, I needed to let more pain out.
I’d been compartmentalizing it for too long, and now it was wreaking havoc on my mental filter, especially when I couldn’t interpret what he’d meant by me “looking good.”
“Sterling Peoples, if I may continue, there are several pressing tasks… When the recycler is back online, the sprinkler system will need calibration, and then—”
“Is it always like this?” I grunted as Silver reversed the transport chair over the lip and out of his delicious-smelling pod.
Silver leaned in to be heard over the black grates humming beneath the wheels. “Like what?”
“This—” I gestured around the space. “—nonstop?”
He didn’t answer as C’s chirpy voice rattled off another task.
I huddled into the chair, pressing my hands into the arm grips as he hustled us back to the hovertube faster than my body could handle. “So…you’re it? The one person keeping this place functional?”
“Well, I don’t know how functional it is, but I’m definitely a one-man show.”
“There’s no one else left?” Even though I’d seen the bodies and the obliterated surface levels with my own eyes and smelled the moldering stench of decay around us, I needed him to say it out loud.
His jaw tightened, visible in the hovertube’s mirrored finish, the low light warping his face into a monster’s. “Yup.” He popped the p.
A pang of hopelessness ripped through my chest, and I clutched the pocket my com should’ve been in. D’iver, please tell me you’re on your way. “But someone’s coming, right?”
The doors to level ten slid open, and a blast of heat wafted toward us. If level ten was this hot, what would level nine be like? I liked heat, but not that much.
“You tell me!” he bit out. “I haven’t had contact with the outside world in months.” Silver sped the transport chair down the dark corridor, the only light coming from the small blue track lights lining the floor.
“Well, my brother will come.” Just as soon as the warnings were lifted.
Or sooner if I could retrieve the communicator from my pleasure craft.
I reached back and rested my hand over his on the chair handle, squeezing before letting go.
Of course he’s angry. Who wants to be reminded of their precarious—our precarious—situation?
Stilted conversation over, we reached the room C had suggested, and I released a shaky breath when the path remained free of bodies. A gift from Sola.
A sterile room opened before us, black surfaces gleaming, overhead lights flickering. Please let the revive gel be charged.