Chapter 10
My Drathious, whose name I have yet to catch, takes the hand I offer and lets me lead him out of the room.
I know I’m showing my alliance as much as I am making a display that I still want him, and it’s daring to pick a side when I’m vulnerable as a human among elite warriors, princes, soldiers, and more.
But I know now I’ve chosen correctly. And I’m so glad he picked me.
I spot Sky. She covertly waves from beside a different Mindor, who scowls at Fenrysin. I do not think they are from the same pack by the different markings on their necks. I wave back, and when she smiles, I think she’s doing just fine.
I’ll check in with her later. My male is bleeding everywhere. Fuck you, Fenrysin.
Out in the hallway, where the music softens, and the light is bright white and steady, I motion to the right. “My ship is docked down this way. I’ve got some good medicine to help with Mindoran scratches.”
“Those aren’t scratches,” a voice growls from behind me.
I wheel around, anticipating another Mindor, only to find three more Drathious males wearing Abr badges of security guards and bands around their wings.
They stand in marred black armor. At the front is a soldier with wicked tattooed chevron patterns in fresh ink over his cheekbones and one marking between his brows.
My chosen guides me against him with a wince and motions to them.
“Your team?” I ask.
He nods.
“Oh, shit. He can’t talk.” One of the others adds. “Rage Roar ripped out your chords, didn’t it?” He chuckles. “That was fucking awesome by the way.”
“That’s Rykarn,” the tattooed one says with a gruff, low voice. “He never shuts up. Vryskas is the shorter, fatter enabler.”
“Hey! I am all muscle,” Vryskas defends, flexing his arms like he’s ready to fight about it.
The Drath in front wrinkles his nose at Vryskas before returning his attention to me. “I am Team Leader Sidius. I…had a team. Now I am one of…”
My guy squirms, stopping Sidius.
“You have not told her your name?” Rykarn rumbles.
He’s the tallest of the group with a black half-mohawk that spikes more as it reaches his forehead.
His ears bear small black plugs. Vryskas is riddled with scars like he was born in a patch of briars.
But Sidius has the deepest lines in his face from battles lost. I wager he’s the oldest.
The team stares at my red male like they don’t understand why he didn’t even try. He rubs his throat and looks warily down at me like I’m not going to like the answer. Then he waves for Sidius to continue.
“You don’t recognize him?” Sidius asks me.
I move aside for another couple who leave the Mingle celebration in a hot, tangled mess.
“Should I?”
Vryskas swats Sidius in the arm. “How would she know? We all have the same color of eyes. We always have to wear suits or armor around others. He probably had his mask on when she saw him before, anyway.”
Sidius braces his hands on his hips and seems to ponder the situation. “Do you like him?”
“Can we get to the point? He’s bleeding. I’d like to take care of him,” I say. “Everything else can happen later.”
Sidius’ jaw muscles clench. He hangs his head. “Jorusk can lose a lot more blood and survive.”
I look up at my protector, confused, because I saw him just days ago, and yet recognition is not a word I would use.
“Jorusk?”
He nods. “S…”
Jorusk hangs his head back as embers puff out of his throat.
“Why is he doing that?” I ask.
“The Inferno heals us. So embers are a good sign, but that also means he’s still injured.” Sidius motions toward the males’ wing. “Osiris has our medical bay ready. We can get Jorusk back in the games quickly, but he needs to come with us. You are welcome to join, Brynna.”
Of course, he knows who I am. They all probably do.
Sidius leads the way. “We have not used the Rage Roar in many decades because so many species do not like it. Jorusk is different, breaks rules, runs into danger.”
Jorusk fumes beside me. Light flames shimmer near his wounds, and I think his body is trying to cauterize itself. He doesn’t release his arm from around my waist, but he won’t look at me anymore except for a stolen moment or two.
“Hello, ladies,” Rykarn waggles his brows at a group of passing women, who gape and whisper like they aren’t sure what to think. He shrugs and keeps walking beside us. “They just don’t know how good a dance with a devil can be.”
A rumble starts in Jorusk’s chest.
Sidius backhands Rykarn in the nuts. “Focus, dipshit.”
Rykarn wheezes, then chuckles darkly as he straightens. “Yes, boss.”
“Fuck.” Sidius curses quietly in annoyance.
Rykarn hums a note of interest. “Later.”
The horrified look Sidius gives him tells me they haven’t been working together very long. “Your team is…disorderly, Jorusk. I would not mark them on my skin if they were lost in battle. Perhaps, Osiris. The others…”
“Ouch?” Rykarn gnashes his pointy teeth. “More, please.”
“Don’t mind Rykarn,” Vryskas says from behind us. “He’s just a twisted little egomaniac with sadistic tendencies who, deep down, wants to be a sub to a dominatrix twice his age. And I mean little.”
When the two start to bicker, Jorusk stops, releases me, and grabs the two of them by the chest of their armor. He breathes trails of embers as his eyes brighten with angry red light. He spares each of them a glance, then shakes them free of his grip.
They mutter quietly as they follow us the rest of the way through the males’ dorms and to their hangars.
“Unbelievable,” Sidius sighs. He taps his ear com. “Osiris, Sidius. Open the ramp. We’re on approach.”
Ahead of us, the ramp of a dark red Drathious StarEmber lowers to the floor.
A kind-faced Drathious with lighter red skin and a medical badge on his chest smiles at me.
His black hair is short like Sidius’ but doesn’t spike up in the front quite the way Jorusk’s does.
“Hello, Brynna. Thanks again for what you’re doing for us, and for staying with Jorusk after that battle in the Mingle hall. It’s already all over the news.”
As we hike up the ramp into the ship, I notice a screen on the wall, showing replays of the fight, and me leading Jorusk out of the room.
Any of my work contacts who don’t like Drathious will likely back out now.
But I remind myself that I have Ohni’s offer after the race.
That could be a lucrative option if Jorusk and I work out.
Sidius and Osiris help Jorusk onto one of the medical beds in a room of the ship. Jorusk won’t lie back. He snorts at Sidius and glances at me.
“It’s going to hurt.” Osiris warns.
Jorusk shakes his head, then nods like he doesn’t want to do it but knows he has to.
Osiris grabs a large device with levers and hands one side of it to Sidius. I brace myself on the foot of the bed, ready to help if they need it, while Vryskas and Rykarn just sit and watch from the other beds.
“Store the pain, brother,” Vryskas says.
“Pain is fuel when we have nothing left,” Rykarn adds, a more solemn tone to his voice.
Sidius counts down. “Three… Two…”
Jorusk takes a deep breath.
Osiris and Sidius pry the chest plate off of Jorusk. He grunts a cloud of embers and shudders as he pants. As they move to set the device aside, I notice a similar plate on each of their chests.
Spark arrestors must be required for them to be here.
A piece of me views the protective measure like it’s a crime.
As I get a better look at Jorusk’s vibrant chest, the blood-orange light that pulses from his core, crawling outward in crags, I suddenly hate the arrestor.
With it gone, I can see the relief in his eyes.
Osiris and Sidius slip under his arms and hold him up as he catches his breath, and the worst wounds stop dripping.
Without warning, Jorusk blacks out.
Osiris swears as he and Sidius lay him back.
“Is that normal?” I ask.
“No. Not for him.” Rykarn is back on his feet, digging through the cabinets. “Jorusk has a different Inferno than the rest of us. He’s from another Drath world. DIA can explain it better. But maybe he just overloaded himself, and we took the plate off too fast?”
“What does that mean?” I ask. I’m desperate to help. He protected me. I want to preserve that kind of bond as long as I can.
“I don’t think that’s it,” Vryskas remarks, running a finger over Jorusk’s skin near one of the tears. He sniffs it and jerks away. “Fucking dogs. Fenrysin had creosotine in his claws!”
“Creosotine?” Sidius asks.
“But you catch on fire. How can that be bad?” I ask.
“We’re not made of wood. It is more toxic to us than to humans because of the way our Infernos work.” Sidius motions to a different cabinet in Vryskas’ side of the room. “Get the powder.”
Osiris is already flushing the wounds with a bottle of saline.
“We don’t have any Yaruwis solution?” Rykarn calls to the others.
“Maybe Abr has some?” I ask.
“Doubt it.” Vryskas dumps white powder over Jorusk’s wounds.
“It doesn’t make sense why a Mindor would have this stuff,” Sidius says, helping Rykarn collect more saline and powder.
Jorusk’s body trembles on the table. It’s such a change from the powerful beating that he gave the Talhuskin just an hour or so ago that I’m anxious to find a solution.
“I have Yaruwis, but in plant form, on my ship. You’d have to process it, though.”
“Osiris.” Sidius jerks his head toward the door and takes over flushing Jorusk’s wounds.
Osiris and I run back the way we came, past the Mingle Hall, and to my ship.
Osiris is much quieter than the others. He stands guard outside Gypsy Star while I climb my ramp and hustle to the backup plant stock and seeds.
I have only a few of everything, just in case my mothership was ever fully taken over or destroyed.
I grab one of my plants, take several cuttings, though not so many that it will kill the plant, and place the leaves in a bag.
As I turn to leave, a memory comes back to me of three years ago, what Jorusk had to deal with during the Amphiran civil war when all the other species got involved.
I remember hearing about it on the news.
Walking into my office, I grab a disruptor device and then, from my first aid kit, a salve I made for my own chemical burns.
Back outside, Osiris steps off the ramp. I close it, and we make our way back toward their vessel. I lift my Abr wristband, my concern still churning in my mind. “Contact Ohni.”
My band rings with a series of staccato low-tones.
“Brynna, what can I do for you?”
“Jorusk has creosotin burns in his claw marks. Who else uses that as a weapon?”
She swears. I’m surprised someone with a mouth like hers ended up running the race, and I’m not. Ruby handed it down to her, and Ohni has to put up with a lot of chaos every round.
As we’re about to pass the Mingle Celebration, Fenrysin steps out and into our path. “Problem with your Drath?”
Osiris places himself between us without hesitation.
“Jorusk has blacked out on his ship,” I tell her. “Fenrysin isn’t letting us pass. I have a disruptor and a theory.”
“On our way. Don’t do anything. Cameradrone inbound.”
“Hurry.”