Chapter 25 Reese #2
I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss.
He's stiff at first, and I use that to push him closer to the exit.
He's ignorant of where he's going or maybe too lost in what he's apparently been wanting for so long.
Then something shifts, he pushes away from me just enough so he can look down at me, his hand on my hips holding me back.
"Stop, Empress, you don't have to be like this with me," he says, as if he's saving me from… what? Kissing? "I know you always pretended to be easy, but you're not like that. Not really."
Oh. He's one of those.
I might have been up on stage singing about how much I enjoy being with men and dancing provocatively, but of course, I'm not like that in real life. I'm a sweet, untouched, perfect girl. Or that's at least the fantasy Leo must've spun for himself.
"You're right," I tell him, leaning into him again, peeking as stealthily as I can over his shoulder to see we're so close to the door. "But you make me feel safe enough to try the things I've only ever sang about."
"Really?" he asks, the question so sincere, the eagerness in his eyes bright. "There are all those rumors of guys saying you were with them."
"They're lying," I tell him, sobbing again, which is a lot easier considering the only reason I'm not full-on body sobbing this whole time is because I'm trying to seduce him enough to get me to the door. "They're all lying. But you see the real me. You know the real me."
"I do," he says fervently, his hands pulling me close again, and I stagger into him with a little too much force.
He's kissing me again, and I go through the motions.
A slight tug here, a little step there. Before he realizes my eyes have been open the entire time he's been awkwardly thrusting his tongue in my mouth, we're at the door.
With all of my willpower, I give him a deep throaty moan of pleasure as we press against the door.
It opens with a soft whooshing sound as I bite down on Leo's tongue.
He wrenches back, pushing at me to get me to stop, and I use the distraction to bolt out the door.
I immediately fall, something in my ankle making a disgusting crunching sound as I hit the floor.
My assumption about the door leading out onto the port was correct, but I hadn't taken into account that the height of the door would be without the entrance ramp.
In my need to get away from Leo, I fell a good four feet to the ground, spraining something in the process.
"You stupid fucking bitch!" Leo screams from the doorway as I stagger to my feet.
Oh, something is definitely not right, but I'm fueled with enough adrenaline that even if my leg were broken, I'd be running until it gave out. I run as fast as I can, knowing Leo is going to be right behind me at any second.
I rip at the device on my temple, tearing at the stickiness to release it. Leo must've docked as far away from the busy parts of the port as possible because there's no one around but empty and dark ships. That doesn't stop me from screaming, though.
"Help!" My voice is ringing even in my own ears. "Somebody help me! Please!"
My fingernails sink underneath the sticky tack, and I rip it from my temple, crying out and hoping really hard that it didn't take any of my skin with it.
Immediately, thoughts that aren't mine start spilling into my mind. It's Zill, so much of it is Zill, but there are others as well. So many other voices, all Sombrans, all talking to one another in their heads. And then it goes silent as I scream both out loud and in my head. "Help!"
I'm closest. Tell her to keep running straight. I'm headed right for her. It's not the sound of Zill's thoughts, but I don't question it. He's in my head, which means he's in Zill's, which means he's safe.
I pick up my pace, ignoring the screaming in my ankle. A figure appears at the far end of the docking area, and I let out a desperate little sob as I keep hobbling toward them. He's running a lot faster than I am, which is good because my ankle isn't going to get me much further.
Before I know it, I'm engulfed in shadows.
I only see blond hair and shadows before I'm burying myself against his chest, letting him support my weight.
I cling to him, mumbling Zill's name over and over, hoping that's who's holding me.
He doesn't feel like my soulbond, but there were enough similar characteristics that I can't find it in me to check.
I got her, Zill. She's fine. I think she thinks I'm you, but she's fine.
I don't have the capacity to do anything other than listen to his words. On some level, I'm sure I'm embarrassed that whoever this Sombran is, isn't Zill, but I'm too happy not to be stuck on a ship with Leo that I don't care.
"Let go of her," Leo says from behind me.
My whole body goes rigid, thinking that he's going to do whatever he did to Isha to whoever this man is that's still holding me tight to him. He has one hand around me, his shadows blocking everything out just like Zill's have done to me so many times.
"Can't do that, man," the Sombran says. "This is my brother's soulbond. You know the consequences for messing with a soulbonded pair?"
"They're not bonded and we're not on Sombra, so it doesn't apply!" Leo shrieks, like full-on, shrieks. He'd give Zill's shadows a run for their money in how shrill they sound.
No one is allowed to ever comment on that. Zill's voice cuts through my thoughts, and I let out a soft laugh, the awfulness breaking for a slight reprieve.
"Don't do anything stupid," Zill's brother says, taking a step backward, his shadows tugging me with him, keeping me close and covered and protected. "Even if you take me down, the rest of us are on our way here. You can't leave port fast enough."
"You can't take her from me!" Leo screams. "Empress is mine! She is mine!"
Tell her to stay, Zill. The voice in my head, belonging to the Sombran holding me, says.
I stiffen, knowing he's about to do something that could be entirely foolish, but I'm not going to be able to stop him. One second, he's protecting me, the next, he's stepping in front of me and rushing at Leo, who apparently wasn't expecting to be full-on tackled by a Sombran.
It all happens so fast. Zill's brother tackles him to the ground, and a device that looks a lot like a blaster falls to the floor away from them.
Then, Leo is pinned to the port floor by the Sombran's shadows.
Another Sombran is beside me, almost as quickly as the other left, his shadows doing the same, covering me, pulling me close.
I swat at the shadows to clear them from my face so I can see.
It's another blond, but I'm thinking more clearly, and noticing that neither Sombran is mine.
"He won't like your shadows being on me," I say, going for lighthearted but missing it by a mile. Wyn, the brother with me, gives me a crooked smile as he looks down at me.
"We're family, now, family's allowed to touch."
"Plus, neither of us has any interest in you," Yryff says with a grunt as he uses his fingers to pry the metal contraption off Leo's temple.
Leo thrashes underneath him, trying to say something that's being cut off by the shadows gagging him.
Yryff pats the man on the cheek with a little more force than strictly necessary as he says.
"You should be glad it's us alone with you and not our brother. He'd have you scrambled in no time."
This, of course, doesn't stop Yryff from bringing his fist back and punching Leo square in the face. I jerk away from the violence, tucking my head closer to Wyn's body.
"Let's get you to the ship," Wyn says.
He doesn't say anything to Yryff, though I can hear the sound of him punching Leo a few more times.
I stumble as I try to walk, and then I'm scooped up into Wyn's arms. I don't know when I started crying or if I never actually stopped from the first time I started back in Leo's ship.
Either way, there's no sobbing or wracking hiccups.
It's just a silent trail of tears running down my face as I shake and tremble in Wyn's hold.
"It's so cold," I tell him, my teeth chattering.
His jaw clenches as his shadows wrap tighter around me. "I'm going to run, but it might jostle your ankle, okay?"
I nod, too tired and cold and just done with everything to care.
His running does, in fact, jostle my ankle, and I have to bite down on my lip to keep from crying out.
Thankfully, he's fast, and he gets us to the more populated area of the port in no time, and then to the ship even faster.
It's only once we're inside that I notice it's not Zill's ship.
I close my eyes tight, thinking I'm imagining things, but when I open them, the inside of the ship is still ridiculous shades of purple all over.
The metal is tinted mauve, the inlaid carpet is lavender, and as we traverse further inside, even the majority of the furniture varies from plum to periwinkle. "Where are we?"
"Oh gods," Mauve's voice is not one I'm expecting, but it all kind of clicks into place.
When I'm thinking more clearly, I'm going to tell her I'm judging her color choices.
"Get her in the medbay, I made your father install one of those nice automated ones since you know he's getting up there in age. "
"Don't let dad hear you say that," Wyn murmurs, but does as Mauve says, taking me deeper into the ship until I'm laid out on a small medical bed.
I look around the room, my eyes wide, my body still shaking uncontrollably from the cold.
Wyn searches through some cabinets and comes back to me with a thin blanket I've seen packed in emergency supply kits.
He unfolds it and drapes it over my body.
I cling to it as he moves to my feet, removing the strappy sandals I'm wearing.
"Where's Zill?" I ask, my voice cracking as my body and mind finally come to terms with the fact that we're safe now. I'm safe, and I don't have to be panicking. Since I don't have to anymore, I'm just exhausted.
I'm on my way, love. Zill's voice cuts into my thoughts, and I let out another cry. I was at the other port. I'm on my way now. No one else is listening now. It's just you and me, and I'm on my way to you.
Just get here. I need you. I tell him, sniffling as Wyn adjusts my leg.
"He'll be here as soon as he can," Wyn tells me, squeezing my hand as he sets my shoes beside the side of the bed. "I'm going to start the medbot, but I'm not leaving your side until he gets here, okay?"
"Thank you," I tell him, taking his hand in mine.
"Don't thank me," Wyn says with a small smile. "Mom would've had our heads if we didn't find you. It was really just self-preservation."
I let out the world's most pathetic laugh at that. "Well, I guess I'll have to thank her then."
"Mom!" Wyn yells so loud that I startle.
Thankfully, my injured leg is strapped down as the bot does its job and figures out the best way to heal it.
Mauve is in the medbay area as soon as Wyn calls her, tears pricking her lower lashes, and her face free of ninety percent of the makeup she usually wears.
And yet she still looks more put together than I do most of the time.
"Reese wanted to thank you," Wyn says, smirking at me in a way that makes him look so much like his brother it's almost uncanny.
"Reese, sweetheart," Mauve says, walking over to the side that isn't occupied by her kid.
She strokes my hair out of my face gently and opens her mouth to speak before closing it.
She takes a deep breath and seems to settle herself.
"I want you to know that even before you were Zill's soulbond, you were one of mine.
" She strokes my hair down my temple again, looking more to the side of my head than in my eyes as she speaks.
"I've been told I'm not the best at expressing my fondness and care for others sometimes. "
Wyn snorts, earning him a glare from both of us. He holds his hands up in faux surrender, but his eyes remain crinkled.
"Call it a byproduct of most of my loved ones being Sombrans.
They hear how much I think about them, hear my love for them.
What I'm trying to say is that you have always been part of my family, and you will always be cared for and looked out for by us.
And that would've been true with or without Zill.
I should've been better at expressing that to you out loud over the years.
Maybe things wouldn't have…" she trails off, and I reach up to grab her hand, squeezing it.
"I wish you'd been my mom," I tell her with a whisper. A confession I've felt for a while now, but felt like a bad daughter for even thinking it.
"Yes, well." She wipes at her eyes, clearly not sure where to go from here.
Wyn interrupts, making the heavy moment a lot more lighthearted. "Pretty sure Zill's glad she wasn't your mom."
"Ew," Mauve and I say at the same time, shooting Wyn matching scowls. He throws his head back, his laughter filling the room as Mauve and I continue to show him our disappointment.
He's not wrong. Zill's voice fills my mind, breaking my stern expression and forcing a smile on my lips. It would've been really awkward.
"You're the worst," I tell Wyn, hitting his arm as he keeps laughing.
"I'm telling Dad and Yryff when they get back."
"Don't you dare turn a wonderful moment into something vulgar," Mauve says, chastising her son. Her tears have dried, though, and when she looks down at me, she shoots me a wink, letting me know she isn't as upset as she's pretending to be.
"I'm just glad I can be part of one good family," I say, leaning back down against the medical bed and settling in. I don't know how long the medical bot will need to work, but Mauve and Wyn both find comfortable spots to sit, and they stay with me the whole time.